Deathtrap Iraq

The Spanish High Court has decided to close a case in which the family of a cameraman killed in Iraq sought the arrest and questioning of three US soldiers, ruling that his death was a mistaken act of war, a Reuters report has said. JUSTICE DENIED: The Couso family. The court's decision was "outrageous and disgraceful'' and the family was going to appeal Friday's ruling, said Javier Couso, brother...

NEW YORK: Jill Carroll, the Christian Science Monitor reporter who spent more than 80 days in captivity in Iraq last year before being freed following an international call for her release, has retuned to the Middle East, currently reporting out of Cairo for the paper. Monitor Editor Richard Bergenheim confirmed that Carroll had been working out of Cairo following her leave of absence last fall to...

Reporters Without Borders has learned of the death of two journalists in Baghdad, bringing to 152 the number of media personnel murdered in Iraq since the start of the conflict in March 2003. A journalist has also been kidnapped in the northern town of Kirkuk. Mohan Hussein al-Dhahr, 49, editor of the daily al-Mishrak, was killed in a botched kidnap outside his home in the al-Jami’a district in...

BAGHDAD, Iraq: Gunmen killed an Iraqi newspaper editor Sunday morning outside his home in western Baghdad, a colleague said. Mohan al-Dahir, an editor of the independent Al-Mashriq newspaper, was shot dead by assailants who first tried to kidnap him, said Sayed Ali, another editor at the paper. Al-Dahir, a Shiite Muslim, lived in a Sunni neighborhood of western Baghdad. "He had good relations with...

(RSF/IFEX) - Hussein Al Zubaydi, a journalist with the weekly "al-Ahali", was killed by gunmen in unclear circumstances in Baghdad on 19 February 2007, while the bullet-riddled body of Abderrazak Hashim Al-Khakani, a journalist with radio Jumhuriyat Al Iraq, was discovered in a Baghdad morgue on 20 February. He had been kidnapped a week earlier in the east Baghdad neighbourhood of al-Jihad...

New York, February 26, 2007—The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply concerned about the safety of an Iraqi newspaper editor who disappeared in central Baghdad on Saturday. Jamal al-Zubaidi, 56, an economics editor for the Baghdad-based dailies As-Saffir and Al-Dustour, was last seen leaving As-Saffir’s offices in the central Karada neighborhood around 1 p.m. on Saturday, his son Riyah told...

US troops raided the offices of the Iraq Syndicate of Journalists in central Baghdad and arrested armed 10 guards, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has reported. IFJ condemned as “outrageous and inexcusable” the action of American soldiers who carried out an armed raid on the Baghdad offices of the journalists syndicate. Iraq Syndicate of Journalists chairman Shihab al-Timimi...

An Italian judge ordered Wednesday a US soldier to stand trial on homicide charges for shooting dead an Italian intelligence agent in Iraq in 2005 as he was escorting a freed journalist to safety, Reuters has reported. Mario Lozano of the US Army's 69th Infantry Regiment was charged with voluntary homicide for shooting Nicola Calipari at a checkpoint near Baghdad airport. Italian journalist...

BAYSIDE, Texas: Show me the money, or at least some receipts scribbled on the backs of old envelopes and grocery bags. This week, we were treated to the spectacle of the former U.S. civilian overlord of Iraq, Ambassador L. Paul Bremer, squirming in the hot seat as he attempted with little success to explain what he did with 363 TONS of newly printed, shrink-wrapped $100 bills he had flown to...

(CPJ/IFEX) - New York, February 2, 2007 - The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply concerned that more than a year after Iraqi journalists Marwan Ghazal and Reem Zaeed were abducted by gunmen in Baghdad they remain missing. "The plight of Marwan Ghazal and Reem Zaeed underscores the enormous dangers faced by all journalists covering this conflict, but especially those largely anonymous...